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Original Message
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| 428PI & truck 360 (long post) |
| By Bill - 04/04/2006 3:24:32 PM; IP 153.26.176.34 |
First of all let me say that this is an amazing forum!
Mr F: My thanks to you for the efforts you make to keep this forum alive and to keep the huge amounts of past posts available for searching and review.
I discovered this forum from a link on the FordMuscle forum and have been immersed in reading everything I can and going back as far as I can to read past posts in an effort to avoid showing my a** with questions that may have already been asked and answered.
I’ve learned more in the 3 weeks that I’ve been researching the past posts than I have in many, many years of owning FEs and working on them. The technical advice here is amazing!
The knowledge, experience, and advice of folks like Royce, Hawkrod, Dave Shoe, McQ and others has been very educational for me and probably will help me to make far fewer mistakes as I begin the two projects that I have in mind.
**Disclaimer: I am currently in a hot and dusty place courtesy of “Uncle Sugar”; my vehicles are resting back in Connecticut for me to return. I can’t answer any questions about casting numbers or dimensions from here.
My aim is to have boxes and boxes of parts ready in November when I am once again in the ‘land of the big PX’ and able to tinker.
**My first series of questions concerns my 1973 F-250 4x4 with a ’68 428 PI engine and C-6 trans.
I’ve had this engine in and out of the truck since the early 80s.
I recently had the engine on a stand to pull the heads so that I could send them out for hardened seats. I never got the chance to put the engine back in, and after reading some of the information on this forum, I thought I would list my ‘plans’ and ask for some advice from those that have probably done much of what I intend to do.
**Headers: I’ve always run headers on this, I think they were Blackjack until they rusted out, then swapped to stock 360 truck manifolds while I decided what headers to go with next. I don’t ever remember noticing any port or gasket mis-match problems between the headers and truck manifolds, so based on what I’ve read here, I think that the 428 & 360 heads have the same exhaust configuration, am I correct? I’ve never had a leak problem so that leads me to believe that the ports are the same. The bolt pattern is the same for the flanges.
I can buy Hedman thermal coated 4-tube headers (3/8” flange and 14 ga tubes) from one of the big suppliers, or I can go with the FPA Tri-Y thermal coated ones. The Hedmans are less than half the price of the FPA items, but the quality of the FPA headers has been touted here on this site more than once.
Question: Will I notice much of a difference in the Tri-Y and 4-tube as far as low and mid-range power? This is a truck and won’t be on the strip, I don’t intend to buzz the engine up to 6 grand on a regular basis, either. It is almost a daily driver vehicle, and I want to do this right the first time. If the FPA units are far better then I guess I don’t mind spending the $$ up front to get the best performance.
**Cam: from what I’ve read, the Comp Cams 268H seems to be about the best replacement choice for a basically ‘stock’ or mild rebuild. Agreed? I would get the ‘kit’ with springs, retainers, locks, etc.
**I intend to keep the stock aluminum PI manifold with probably an Edelbrock carb. Any ideas as to preferred jetting on the Edelbrock? I hope to keep the stock compression ratio, unless the engine needs to be bored.
**Rockers: I’ve seen a lot of discussion in these forums about broken rocker shafts. Personally I’ve never experienced a problem, but want to avoid one if possible.
Harland-Sharp has thicker shafts in two sizes; .840” & .875”. What is the stock size shaft that I need?
My thoughts are to use Ford NOS adjustable rockers, even though the stock non-adjustable ones lasted for this long. I figure that these parts are pretty old and it would be cheap peace-of-mind to get something newer. Opinions?
If I can avoid the high-dollar needle bearing aluminum systems I would like to do that.
I can also get a used set of Low-Riser stock assemblies from Perogie.
I’ve seen references to rocker shaft end stands from Precision Oil pumps, but haven’t written to them yet for prices and descriptions, can anyone speak from personal experience about these?
**Cylinder heads: I figure that I have the skills to at least smooth out the castings and port-match the intakes without making any efforts to redesign the ports and runners. My thoughts are that I can shine up the ports and remove any bumps without doing damage to the overall design. I want to make sure that I’m not kidding myself, or heading for a disaster. Comments?
**Hardware: There was a discussion a couple years ago where Dave Shoe expressed concerns about the ARP 3/8” rod bolts that were a replacement for the 13/32 stock Ford bolts. What was the final outcome of that discussion? Any further pros and cons? This will be mostly a ‘stock’ rebuild with some relatively minor improvements built in, so sustained high rpms are not in the picture.
**I have the 7 quart, rear sump, 4x4 oil pan so I think I’m ok in the oil pan capacity department, The engine was running between 75-80 psi cold and 40-50 psi hot at idle so I am confident that the internals are in good shape and oiling has never been a problem.
**Harmonic damper: Since that too is 35 years old and showing it’s age I plan on replacing it. I’ve seen several sites that offer rebuilt units, or will rebuild mine. Any opinions on mfrs that do the best job?
**Distributor: I have the stock points unit that came on the engine (CT State Police cruiser), and I have a Mallory Unilite Dist that is on my truck 360. I’ve read that a vacuum advance unit is best for street use so I can upgrade my stock dist with a Mallory or Pertronix kit, or I can get a Mallory dist with the vacuum advance. Preferences, opinions??
All replies and opinions are appreciated. Thanks, Bill
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